The government is corrupt and corporations are generally evil by their nature.

On the other hand, technology is increasing at an alarming rate as far as security issues are concerned and in the future it may be necessary to monitor everyone at all times regardless of its implications.

Imagine a world, where any biology student could custom create a virus. Would we really be thinking "freedom has no price" if every other terrorist or psycho could make a new deadly virus in his kitchen with a simple 3D biological printer or some new technology, should there ever be one.

Imagine anyone could just splice a few genes and suddenly there is a new algae in the ocean that is creating CO2 instead of oxygen and in 20 years it will destory the entire planet. Would we not feel the need to know what everyone is upto at all times, if anyone could do un-imaginable amounts of damage given the new knowledge at everyone's finger tips?

So at the moment i am more of a fuck the NSA person, for good reason i think. I do imagine in the future we will all need to watched all the time and privacy will be an antiquated notion.

For those that don't understand.. The feds aren't asking Apple to decrypt the phone. They're asking Apple to create a hack to bypass the failed password attempt feature. Then the feds will brute force attack the login on the phone.

This sets a bad precedent, and creates a pathway to abuse from both the government and from hackers.

Well, here are my thoughts on this: the story doesn't add up. The crux is that the FBI wants Apple to make a special version of IOS that is trivially hacked, to be installed in the target's IPhone. Now, when I download an update to IOS, I need to have my passcode - the very thing the FBI wants, and Apple claims it doesn't have. So does Apple already have a backdoor to upload a new operating system without the user's consent? If so, the horse is already out of the barn, and Apple's vows to cyber security mean squat.

Furthermore, if Apple provided that tool, I'm sure China or Iran will demand it as well, as a condition to doing business in those countries. How can they refuse? And, making the tool would require only trivial changes to IOS, that anyone who has access to the source code can make. Does anyone think that the IOS source code is out of reach for the NSA? If they're not totally incompetent, they already have done this hack and can get access to any IPhone they chose to. It's just the FBI who can't get to this because of the legal separation between domestic and intelligence agencies.

So I don't understand why Apple doesn't make their phones more secure, making it impossible to change the operating system without a passcode, nor do I get why the US government is pushing this so hard.

Well we know the IRS is corrupt, that the ACA roll out was incompetent and the FBI just got hacked , so the Government is definitely not trust worthy. The government also created this problem since the phone was locked after it was seized. So that is either corruption or incompetence. It's not Apple problem that the Government policies caused this problem and it shows Obama's tyrannical core values.

Lumpyoatmeal saidApple has always been an intrinsically and fundamentally dishonest company. Greed rules their actions. It's a safe bet to assume that their reasons are not for the good of the industry.

And not for the good of the public I should have added. It's always about profits and money with Apple.

Whipmagic saidWell, here are my thoughts on this: the story doesn't add up. The crux is that the FBI wants Apple to make a special version of IOS that is trivially hacked, to be installed in the target's IPhone. Now, when I download an update to IOS, I need to have my passcode - the very thing the FBI wants, and Apple claims it doesn't have. So does Apple already have a backdoor to upload a new operating system without the user's consent? If so, the horse is already out of the barn, and Apple's vows to cyber security mean squat.

Furthermore, if Apple provided that tool, I'm sure China or Iran will demand it as well, as a condition to doing business in those countries. How can they refuse? And, making the tool would require only trivial changes to IOS, that anyone who has access to the source code can make. Does anyone think that the IOS source code is out of reach for the NSA? If they're not totally incompetent, they already have done this hack and can get access to any IPhone they chose to. It's just the FBI who can't get to this because of the legal separation between domestic and intelligence agencies.

So I don't understand why Apple doesn't make their phones more secure, making it impossible to change the operating system without a passcode, nor do I get why the US government is pushing this so hard.

^ All of this. Plus, for the most part, there isn't much separation between "governments," "organized crime," and "terrorists." To open for one is to open for all.

Whipmagic saidWell, here are my thoughts on this: the story doesn't add up. The crux is that the FBI wants Apple to make a special version of IOS that is trivially hacked, to be installed in the target's IPhone. Now, when I download an update to IOS, I need to have my passcode - the very thing the FBI wants, and Apple claims it doesn't have. So does Apple already have a backdoor to upload a new operating system without the user's consent? If so, the horse is already out of the barn, and Apple's vows to cyber security mean squat.

Furthermore, if Apple provided that tool, I'm sure China or Iran will demand it as well, as a condition to doing business in those countries. How can they refuse? And, making the tool would require only trivial changes to IOS, that anyone who has access to the source code can make. Does anyone think that the IOS source code is out of reach for the NSA? If they're not totally incompetent, they already have done this hack and can get access to any IPhone they chose to. It's just the FBI who can't get to this because of the legal separation between domestic and intelligence agencies.

So I don't understand why Apple doesn't make their phones more secure, making it impossible to change the operating system without a passcode, nor do I get why the US government is pushing this so hard.

^ All of this. Plus, for the most part, there isn't much separation between "governments," "organized crime," and "terrorists." To open for one is to open for all.

All of the above, including the plus...PLUS: For all we know, the gangsters in Washington may already be in possession of a hack and this is all a ruse to let the guard down of people who think they're relatively invulnerable on IOS today.

Lumpyoatmeal saidApple has always been an intrinsically and fundamentally dishonest company. Greed rules their actions. It's a safe bet to assume that their reasons are not for the good of the industry.

And not for the good of the public I should have added. It's always about profits and money with Apple.

Please name the major US Fortune 500 Company that is NOT about profits & money.

I think it smacks of double standards. The likes of Apple and Google are quite happy to suck up massive amounts of personal information about their customers, purely for commercial exploitation purposes. I don't think they are in a position to start pretending to be the guardians of privacy when the government asks for information on what appear to be legitimate counter-terrorism grounds.

Lumpyoatmeal saidApple has always been an intrinsically and fundamentally dishonest company. Greed rules their actions. It's a safe bet to assume that their reasons are not for the good of the industry.

And not for the good of the public I should have added. It's always about profits and money with Apple.

Please name the major US Fortune 500 Company that is NOT about profits & money.

Exactly.

But the problem with Apple is that they're superb at conning their customers into thinking that everything they do is for the good of their customers, if not for the good of the world. To listen to the Apple fanboys you'd think Apple was a nonprofit, saving the world from evil. And Apple is more likely to backstab their customers and partners than the other companies are.

you like the free stuff on the internet right, guess what pays for it.

I understand that and I use the internet and e-devices with my eyes open. I don't even mind receiving targeted advertising (as opposed to something I'm never going to be interested in). I'm just not buying big tech corporations telling me they have my privacy at heart.

Is NSA etc really interested in the contents of that particular phone? or are they interested in the precedent of access for their benefit from now forward? Yes the Supreme Court ruling is what Apple/Government are looking for.As for the government's concern it needs visibility to prevent bad shit from happening.both sides are right.